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Will my antenna work?

mmckenna

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I have one of those coils/whips sitting in my garage. Mine is a 40MHz band antenna. Pulled it off a vehicle we received from another agency. Not the same markings yours has.

Yours is missing the rubber gasket that should be on the inside.
 

78k10

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I have one of those coils/whips sitting in my garage. Mine is a 40MHz band antenna. Pulled it off a vehicle we received from another agency. Not the same markings yours has.

Yours is missing the rubber gasket that should be on the inside.
I have it, I pulled it out to show the markings better. Ok, at least I know it won’t work for my application. I’ll pick up a 1/4 wave whip.
 

K6GBW

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I think the Titan is still made of steel..right? If so you could use a magnet mount antenna on the roof (I know but it won't hurt the paint if you get a good one) and then route the coax into the cab via the rear brake light. You can create a small pass through for the coax with a rat tail file and then seal it with silicone. When you got to sell the truck, you can remove the antenna and replace the bed light gasket/housing and you're done. Just an idea to consider. I know you said no magnetic mounts, but they can actually be decently good in some circumstances.

Alternatively, they make hood mounts that are adjustable and or you could get one for another vehicle that's close and tweak it to work. The lip mount is used on Jeeps a lot with some success. If you're goal is to be able to use it vehicle to vehicle for a few miles or around town with a base, then that should get the job done.

If you are planning to keep the truck for some time, then you really might want to consider a properly installed NMO mount on the roof. I know the idea of drilling a hole sounds horrid, but in reality, it's not that bad. I have put NMO mounts on the roof of my vehicles for the last thirty years and never regretted it. I use good quality mounts, carefully determine the location and drill away. Once it's on its super solid and waterproof. When I take the antenna off, I put on an NMO rain cap, and the mount just disappears. Heck, these days almost every car has a GPS antenna or something on the roof anyway and no one notices. I have sold or traded in about six cars over the last thirty years and every single one had an NMO mount. Not once did the dealer ever comment on it.
 

78k10

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I think the Titan is still made of steel..right? If so you could use a magnet mount antenna on the roof (I know but it won't hurt the paint if you get a good one) and then route the coax into the cab via the rear brake light. You can create a small pass through for the coax with a rat tail file and then seal it with silicone. When you got to sell the truck, you can remove the antenna and replace the bed light gasket/housing and you're done. Just an idea to consider. I know you said no magnetic mounts, but they can actually be decently good in some circumstances.

Alternatively, they make hood mounts that are adjustable and or you could get one for another vehicle that's close and tweak it to work. The lip mount is used on Jeeps a lot with some success. If you're goal is to be able to use it vehicle to vehicle for a few miles or around town with a base, then that should get the job done.

If you are planning to keep the truck for some time, then you really might want to consider a properly installed NMO mount on the roof. I know the idea of drilling a hole sounds horrid, but in reality, it's not that bad. I have put NMO mounts on the roof of my vehicles for the last thirty years and never regretted it. I use good quality mounts, carefully determine the location and drill away. Once it's on its super solid and waterproof. When I take the antenna off, I put on an NMO rain cap, and the mount just disappears. Heck, these days almost every car has a GPS antenna or something on the roof anyway and no one notices. I have sold or traded in about six cars over the last thirty years and every single one had an NMO mount. Not once did the dealer ever comment on it.
Yes, the Titan is made of steel. I may use a magnet mount, it’s not out of the question. As far as resale value, well I’m not too concerned. The clear coat has come off the hood and needs a repaint. I found cracking body filler over the rear passenger side door just last week. And I got a good deal on it, so I fully intend to drive it into the ground so I’m not concerned about depreciation. Not to say I’ll abuse it, but I will drive it until it won’t go anymore lol. So, an NMO is not out of the question, but let’s face it, drilling a hole in the roof of a vehicle is a daunting task for a first timer. I’ve watched a few YouTube videos of people doing it and it looks like a straightforward process. Biggest issue would probably be fishing the cable through the interior.

Then again, if I’m not worried about the paint then a magnetic mount wouldn’t be the end of the world. I don’t know, just brainstorming at this point. I did get the radio mounted yesterday. I’m looking for a hardwire power cord right now, as it didn’t come with the correct one. I think I just have a generic cigarette lighter cord. I could cut the plug off and just use that, but I feel confident that I can track down the correct two pin cord.
 

mmckenna

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78k10

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Google is your friend:


Remember, the frequency deviation is different for MURS 1-3 and MURS 4-5.
I found that link earlier and was looking through it. Now, I know that keying the mic without an antenna is bad, so since programming requires keying the mic momentarily, do I need to wait until I have an antenna hooked up? Or am I ok to do it just long enough to get the programming done without the antenna.
 

ladn

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I found that link earlier and was looking through it. Now, I know that keying the mic without an antenna is bad, so since programming requires keying the mic momentarily, do I need to wait until I have an antenna hooked up? Or am I ok to do it just long enough to get the programming done without the antenna.
Most likely, in programming mode you're not actually keying the radio to transmit. It's just sending data like hitting the "RETURN" key when entering data on a keyboard.

That being said, I'd recommend you wait until you have an antenna or dummy load attached to the radio to be on the safe side.

Parenthetically, since this is a fairly old radio, I'd have some concerns about its current performance characteristics. Electronic components deteriorate over time (especially capacitors) and this can cause performance degradation such as reduced transmit power, reduced receive sensitivity or off frequency transmit or receive.
 

mmckenna

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I found that link earlier and was looking through it. Now, I know that keying the mic without an antenna is bad, so since programming requires keying the mic momentarily, do I need to wait until I have an antenna hooked up? Or am I ok to do it just long enough to get the programming done without the antenna.

Yes, transmitting with the radio without being connected to a proper antenna or dummy load is less than ideal.
But this radio is really low power. The issue with transmitting is heat build up in the final transistor. The low power of this radio should make that a non-issue for short keyups, and being this was aimed at 'non-radio' types, it's probably built well enough to work with a poorly matched load.

But, yeah, unless you got a burr under your saddle to make this go, wait for the antenna.
 

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mmckenna

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That's incredible that I bought those (many years ago) without knowing that!! Thanks!!

When Larsen first released them, they were sold as 'scanner antennas' with no mention of transmit capability. After a few years, they started adding the power handling specs and selling them as a solution for multiband radios. The 2013 catalog I have shows them as transmit capable, so some time before then.
 

cpfinlay

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When Larsen first released them, they were sold as 'scanner antennas' with no mention of transmit capability. After a few years, they started adding the power handling specs and selling them as a solution for multiband radios. The 2013 catalog I have shows them as transmit capable, so some time before then.

I am not sure when I bought it, but I am thinking it was likely around 2010. I had just bought the Uniden Homepatrol-1 when it was new and used it as a mobile antenna for many years.
 

nokones

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Thank you sir. I wish I could get some pictures to work, I’d like to know what I have regardless, so I know what it can and can’t do. I may just end up buying a new antenna, but if I can us what I have, I will. Do you know of a cowl NMO mount for a 2009 Nissan Titan? I’ve searched but haven’t been able to find anything that will work.
Laird has Trunk Lip NMO mounts that might work for you. Just because they say Trunk Lops doesn't mean itcwon't work on another hood edge lip.

20241022_044922_resized.jpg
 

mmckenna

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Would this be an acceptable antenna for MURS? The issue I’m having is channel one is 151.820, and channel 5 is 154.600. But the antennas listed are either 152-162, like this one, or 144-152. Neither one covers MURS perfectly it seems.

The nice thing about 1/4 wave antennas is that they are very broad banded. Generally, an SWR below 2:1 is considered good. Here's a basic 1/4 wave on an antenna analyzer showing less than 2:1 from 140MHz up past 172MHz:


You will not have an issue with a 1/4 wave antenna.

I would recommend not getting that particular style, though. I've had issues with water slowly working its way down through the seal and into the mating surfaces resulting in corrosion. For nearly the same price, you can get an antenna that has much better sealing properties:

 

jhooten

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Would this be an acceptable antenna for MURS? The issue I’m having is channel one is 151.820, and channel 5 is 154.600. But the antennas listed are either 152-162, like this one, or 144-152. Neither one covers MURS perfectly it seems.


I have two of the radios. If you care about legality they are only usable on channels 4 and 5 as they cannot do the 12.5K modulation.
 

78k10

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I have two of the radios. If you care about legality they are only usable on channels 4 and 5 as they cannot do the 12.5K modulation.
Oh ok, well as you know it’s only a two channel radio, so I can just program channels 4 and 5 and be good to go sounds like.
 
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